Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore
by bkerbunny
Summary: One Shot. Glen/Kane/OC. What happens when after a few years of marriage your husband calls and tells you he's not happy. How will you handle it? Will it be the end?


_A/N- So... U__h, It's been a while? I don't think I've written anything on here for quite some time. However, some things in my life have changed and I am dipping my toe back into the waters of fanfiction. This morning I discovered a song (Till we Ain't strangers anymore, by Bon Jovi and Leanne Rhimes) And an idea popped into my head. This is just a one shot. A small tidbit to get my feet wet again. I have yet to create a one shot and figured now would be as good a time as any. I hope that some of you may like this one. It's a little different than what I'm used to writting but it's still me. _

_Bunny_

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Do you know what it's like to think that your life couldn't get better? How about that it couldn't get any worse?

I can't seem to remember when one turned into the other for me…

The day I met Glen I know I was in a weird place in my life. I wish I could sit here and say that it was because I was going through some massive trauma that turned my world upside down, but I can't. I wish I could say that it was because I knew exactly what was in store for my future, but I didn't.

Every morning I woke up and I put my clothes on and I made my coffee and I struggled to make ends meet. I had gone from one dreadful relationship to another… until I had given up on dating and men all together. I decided after my… we can say… 2nd failed engagement, I decided to change my focus from the family that every girl dreams of, to realizing that my life was meant to be lived alone. I decided to give everything I had to running a business and a home… on my own.

At that point in my life, I was happy, but not ecstatic. I loved spending time with my friends and finding quality time to self observe. Something has got to be said about someone that can live inside the four walls of an apartment and just ponder their life from the beginning to where they stand today. It was my friends that took me away from that. They encouraged me to constantly push to live as much as I pushed to be successful in business. They worried that I was only causing more damage to myself than good shutting myself up in the apartment at night and spending my days in a very stressful job. They pushed me to go out and live. To view the world around me in a light different than I was currently viewing it. That was, until the day Glen walked into my life.

I remember that moment like it was just yesterday.

I was in a book store waltzing in front of the relationship section. I think I must've viewed every shelf thirty times wondering what would be the best book for me. I almost laughed at myself with the thought that there might be a book with my name on it that would go into great detail about where I had been going wrong. A book that God himself had placed on a shelf to point me in the direction that I needed to go. Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyway, in my quest I had this overwhelming feeling of stupidity. How must I look to the people mulling around behind me? I didn't look anyone in the face and I know I walked that section six times. How is it that every one of those people knew exactly what they wanted and needed and yet here I was searching for me. With all the time I had to soul search while living alone, I still had NO idea who I was or what I needed in my life to make my future different.

One look. That was all it took. I had glanced over my shoulder for one brief moment and seen Glen standing there with his nose in a book. I wasn't stupid. I knew who he was… Wrestling had been something I grew up on. Sitting on my daddy's knee, I had watched and became enthralled. A fan. Granted it had been a lot of years after my time of sitting on my father's lap that the man before me had come onto the screen, but once he was there I couldn't help but notice.

His lengthy body had caused my mind to fantasize, more than once, about the man behind the character Kane. His strong shoulders had me questioning, more than once, if there was ever a chance a woman could not feel safe and secure in his arms.

It had been then, in that moment, he looked up at me. His soulful eyes that held so many stories locked onto my own. I was lost. Lost in his tale of life lived and loves lost. I remember feeling the heat creep up my neck at being caught staring and I ended up giving him a smile and wishing that he wouldn't find me weird for not looking away. There was just something about him that kept me locked into his gaze. Held me captive as I couldn't let that moment pass.

Two short years later, Glen and I shared our vows. It had been the perfect day. I had the dress of my dreams and the people I loved around me. It was the happiest day of my life. I had professed to him how excited I was that I finally got it right. That somehow in two years I had tested him to the rafters and back and yet there he was, standing before the preacher willing to make us a lifetime. There was no better of a feeling.

Hearing a car pull up in the driveway, my attention is drawn to the door of our bedroom and I feel the familiar tingling of joy that I always get when he comes home, but then his earlier phone call makes my heart drop. He isn't happy. He doesn't know how it happened, but he says that things are not what he wanted and feels that we need to make some changes. His words had hit me like a ton of bricks… I had been wondering when the rug would be pulled out from under me.

What had I done? What had I not done? How did things suddenly get so damn complicated? Where had the man and woman from the bookstore gone in such a short time? We had been so in love, and now it's like we're strangers.

Looking up from the bed, my breath catches at seeing him standing in the door frame and I feel the tears of defeat threatening to fall. "Hi." I whisper.

Pursing his lips together he lumbers into the room and lowers his tired frame into the plush material of the chair across from me. "Hello." His deep voice comes out weakly.

I don't know what to say. I don't know how to make him see that I am still me and that I still love him with everything inside of me. I can't see my life without him, but I can't see it continuing the way it is now knowing that he isn't happy. "How was your flight?"

Nodding his partially bald head, he leans back in the chair and lowers his thick arms down to the tops of his legs. "It was good."

Talk to me… Damn it please don't be like this. I need you in my life even if you don't need me. My life is all about you. "I missed you."

His head drops forward, his face a mask of indifference. "I miss you." His words are let out on a sigh.

Miss me? Where have I gone? I'm still here… I have no words. No witty come backs to make that comment sting any less. I'm losing him and I can't stop it because I don't understand it. I can't help but replay the last several years. His trips home. My trips out to travel with him. Did I just ignore the truth? Did I just not want to see that my life was crumbling right there in front of me? It hurts to swallow.

He clears his throat and brings my eyes back to his face. The face that I love to touch and stare at for hours. "I'm gonna go hop in the shower and relax." He informs me as he stands slowly.

All I can do is nod. It's never been like this before. We've never been so estranged. So distant… at least not that I've noticed. In my heart, I live for him. Every happy moment that I've had in my life since meeting him has been because of his presence. Since the day I walked down that isle and became his wife, I've had more happiness than I ever thought one person should be allowed.

Standing, I cross the short distance to the window and listen to him bang around the bathroom as I look out over our property. Before the phone call I wanted to talk to Glen about the possibility of having a baby. It hasn't been something that he and I have ever talked about before. I hadn't wanted to have one up until a few months ago. I never thought of the possibility, but now I long to have the back yard full of toys and a little person that looks like the mix between Glen and I running around.

Is that possible now? Will we be able to work through whatever this is that we've got going on? I don't even know why he is feeling unhappy. Have I gained weight? Has he found someone else that takes care of him in ways that I know nothing about? Has another woman managed to worm their way through the love that he and I supposedly share?

Two arms wrap their way around my midsection and I feel myself crumble under the security of his heat behind me. The tears finally making their way past the barrier I had tried so hard to build earlier that day while I was waiting on him to get home. "Don't mistake my words, Jorryn." He whispers into my hair. "I still love you and I want to find a way to get past whatever this is that we've got going on."

I cry harder. I don't get it. What do we have going on? Up until last night I thought we were fine. I thought my life couldn't get any better. I had no idea that I had made my husband unhappy. "Is there…" I don't want to ask. "Is there someone else?"

Glen spins me around to face him and he leans down with his hands securely on my shoulders. "No, Jorryn…" He shakes me lightly when I won't look at him making me bring my swollen eyes up to his worried ones. "There is NOT anyone else, never could be."

"Then why?" The question tumbles from me before I can stop it. I need to know what makes him so unhappy. How he can sit here and tell me that he still loves me and wants to work through problems I didn't even know we had.

Shaking his head, Glen's hands drop from my shoulders as he turns away from me. "I don't know what it is. I feel like I've lost my best friend somewhere along the way."

His answer is honest, but it strikes a nerve inside of me. "You're right..." I agree wiping at the tears streaming down my face. "You gained a wife. How long have you been feeling this way?"

Sitting down on the bed, Glen's shoulders slump. Leaning forward so that his elbows rest on his knees he brings his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I don't know…" He admits with a hard sigh. "I just looked up one day and you felt like a stranger to me."

Wow… That felt like a low blow. I can't fight the feeling of my one true love slipping through my fingers and being powerless to stop it. I feel as though I've known the man sitting in front of me my whole life. My soul awakened that day in the bookstore. "I don't see that, Glen." I announce as I move from the window and sit down cautiously next to him on the bed. "Our relationship isn't conventional, by any means. You are on the road more than you're at home and I spend my days away from you wishing you were here with me, but I knew who you were and what you did when I met you…"

"That's not it, Jorryn." He stops me, turning on the bed so that he is facing me more fully. "When I used to look into your eyes… I felt that I knew the person behind them. We never ran out of things to talk about and I miss that."

"We talk everyday." I argue. "I fly out to meet with you every chance we have. What am I doing wrong?"

Glen's face takes on a look of frustration as he stands and rubs his hands over his jean clad thighs. "Yes, we talk… but what about?"

His question has me searching the back of my mind for answers. It was a ritual that we have had through our short relationship. Never go a day without letting each other know we are thinking of the other and that we love them. Have we grown complacent? Have we just ignored the passion that fueled our relationship to begin with because we get so little time together?

But that can't be it… When we are together, we make sure to hold one another. To make love as much as we can to make up for the time lost. At times I felt like a mistress that took second place to his actual wife. He'd leave her for a day or so and come and make me feel like the most important thing in his life… and then he was gone again. Married to the business. The wrestling industry is what he craves and loves more than anything. I've known that and I've been happy with what I've had.

"See, even you can't answer that." His voice cuts through my thoughts like a hot knife.

"I'm not trying to." I inform him, shaking my head. "I am thinking of our times spent together. I am trying to figure out how I stopped making my husband happy."

My last sentence is choked out on a sob. This was not supposed to be us. I've had the other wives ask me how it is that I am always so happy. They've wanted to know my secret in how I've kept things so fresh and new with our relationship. All I could ever answer was to be supportive of the man you love and be there whenever, if ever, he needs you. 'Be creative', I would tell them.

"We aren't even on the same page in an argument." Glen's voice booms. "It isn't YOU that is making me unhappy, it's our situation."

"We aren't arguing…" Standing up from the bed, I make my way across the room and grab my husbands face, making him look at me. "What can I do? Tell me what to do and I'll do it." My voice, even to my own ears, is full of conviction.

I watch as Glen's hazel eyes grow cloudy. It is the first time in the few short years that we've been together that he looks to be on the edge of tears. I've never seen him so… confused and lost. "That's just it, baby… I don't know if it's anything that you've done or something I need to do. I'm just NOT happy."

I watch as a single glistening tear drops from his lashes and my heart breaks for him. My rock is falling apart. The man that I believed didn't know how to cry is breaking down in front of me and there is nothing I can do to stop it. The sight of this kind of emotion coming from him is tearing me into a thousand tiny pieces. Pulling his face to mine I press my lips to his hard. I want him to feel me. To know that I am there in every way. I need him to take some of my strength and use it as his own.

Glen's big body envelops me, one hand diving into my hair, the other on my hip pulling me against him. His lips are fire and ice as they dance over mine. I can feel his passion. His anger. His confusion. His need for assurance.

I touch every part of him that I can reach. My fingers digging into him and pulling him against me. If I could crawl inside him I would. I need to feel that I have not lost him completely to his unhappiness. I need him to feel that I still need him as much as I hope he needs me. Reaching up I touch his cheek tenderly, never breaking the hold that our lips have on one another.

Pulling away from the kiss, neither of us wants to let go of the other. We are gasping and panting, our foreheads pressed together in need. Both of my hands are now stroking his face. "I need you, Glen." My voice barely above a whisper. "Everything that I am now is because of us and I refuse to let that go."

Bringing my tearful eyes up to his I hope he can see that what I am telling him is the truth. My love is still there; my need for him is stronger than it's ever been. He swallows hard, his head nodding as he leans in and kisses me softly then pulls me to his chest, crushing me against his bulky frame. "I need you too…"

Hearing him admit that he needs me as well is like music to my ears. He has constantly been the one to lead this relationship. I always thought that he married me because he wanted to, not because he felt that overwhelming pull to have me in his life as much as I have to him. "Thank God." I muffle against his shirt, feeling more relief than I ever have before.

I feel Glen's chest rise and fall, and hear the breath leave him as if we have crossed a deciding path in our relationship. I know it's not the end of what is troubling my husband but I know from that one sigh that we are well on our way to making him feel better. "Where do we go from here, baby?"

His question leaves me stunned. I have no idea. I guess I just always thought that, because of his job, it would be best for him to guide us in whatever direction we needed to go in. He has always been the driver of our little van of life. Is that the problem? Is he unknowingly letting me know that he NEEDS me to take a more active role in what road we need to take? Is he tired of me sitting in the passenger seat?

Stepping back, I look up into his eyes, so full of torment, and shrug. "I honestly don't know. You've always been the one to call the shots because of your schedule." I decide it would be best if I laid the truth out before him so that he knows what I'm thinking. "Do you think that maybe taking a lighter traveling schedule might help some?"

My question, leaves Glen staring at me with a look of concern and hope. Rubbing the back of his neck he turns toward the window and stares out the double paned glass. "I don't know… I mean it could." He answers. "It's been so long since I've taken a break from the road that I don't know what I'd do with myself."

I can feel my happiness at him even thinking about the possibility and I walk over and wrap my arms around him from behind. "It's just a thought… but you could spend that time with me." The offer coming from my lips brings a smile to my face. If in a few weeks, we got back to being us? Maybe we could talk about the possibilities of having a baby. "I can take a leave from work… I have the time built up anyway and we can just… be us for a while."

Taking one of my hands, he pries it open and turns in my arms looking down at me with a grin on his face. "You'd do that?"

I know that he understands the love I have for my own job, just as much as I understand his. It's one of those things we have in common with each other. Yes, if something happens and we need to be there for one another then we come first, beyond that our careers have a very strong hold on who we are as people. "Of course." I inform him as if his asking was not even needed. "I've been dying to have more time with you. I would love to spend time doing some normal things. Going to the store. Making dinner. Reading. Cuddling on the couch. Mowing the damn yard. Everything that other couples take for granted that we don't have the time for."

Glen's face lights up in a way I haven't seen in so long and it hits me. It has been a while since he's shown me true happiness. It's been ages since the smile reached his eyes the way it's doing now. "Ya know, I think I love that idea."

Biting my lip, I have to fight the urge to pinch myself to see if what's transpiring now is actually happening. I've really missed his big toothy grin more than I realized. I missed the calmness that pours from him when he's truly at peace within himself. How could I have missed that? How could I have gone through the last several months not noticing that something wasn't right within him? Had I seen it and just hoped that whatever it was would pass? Did I overlook it because I was so wrapped up in my own life here at the house? Was I daydreaming too much about the possible future that we hold? "Me too." I agree with him, wrapping my arms securely around his neck.

Hugging me back, Glen places soft kisses on my neck and pushes me back so that he can look at me. "I'm gonna go call the office and see if I can talk to Vince." He tells me before leaning in and kissing me softly.

Returning the kiss, I wait for him to pull back and I give him a slight nod and watch him leave the room. My heart is soaring. These moments are what we built our relationship on in the first place. Our ability, as a unit, to discuss what is bothering us and working through the problem together. Not every couple can feel the weight of the world on their shoulders and be able to come to their partner the way he did me and I'm thankful that he thought enough of me to do it.

His pride could've kept him from coming to me with his feelings. His fears of not knowing how I'd react could've made him more distant and hesitant with me. Hell, the entire situation could've drove him into the arms of another… searching for something to fill the void he was feeling in his heart. But he loves me enough to trust me. Believes in me to help and not try and make him feel guilty for the way he is feeling.

Now, I know it can be a while before the plans we are making actually takes place, but it's the thought that sometime in the near future I will have him home for longer than a few days. We both have to make the time off happen. However, I do think that I am going to be making more of an effort to travel out to see him in the weeks to come. Today is an eye opener of sorts. I know what he is feeling, and I am going to do everything in my power to take that away. I am going to make damn sure that we ain't strangers anymore.


End file.
